Owner of the LA Times Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong published an article on Sept. 26 in which he apologized for the publication’s racist history and promised to combat these injustices in the future. Following Soon-Shiong’s statement, the LA Times has published a series of articles detailing their prior failures in reporting racial issues and accurately covering the Black community.
These articles detail how, in the past, the LA Times has contributed to reinforcing racial stereotypes by painting Black Americans as “marauders,” “rapists” and “killers” while simultaneously perpetuating the notion that “tough on crime” policies were the only way to combat crime within LA. It was further mentioned that these past articles were all published as a means in protecting the interests of wealthy landowners, industrialists and white supremacists, since these people were often the largest donors of the organization.
However, it is not sufficient enough for the LA Times to simply state that they have made past mistakes in covering racism. While acknowledging their prior racism is an important first step to dealing with their racism, they must take broader actions to actually combat this in the future and correct their wrongs. Soon-Shiong has planned to take this next step. As the first non-white owner of the LA Times, Soon-Shiong hopes to embark on a new path forward. He wants to not only recognize previous instances of racism within the Times but also include more diverse voices within the organization.
Yet despite these statements made by Soon-Shiong, it appears that the LA Times’ efforts to trail a path forward following their racism have been inadequate thus far.
LA Times’ restaurant critic Patricia Escárcega, who is Latina, exposed the publication in a tweet on Nov. 15 for paying her two-thirds as much as her white-male counterpart, Bill Addison. Addison responded to Escárcega’s tweet, revealing that the two perform the exact same work and should therefore be paid at the same rate. Yet, the Times denied Escárcega’s request to be paid at the same rate as her co-worker.
Furthermore, following the 2020 general election, the LA Times briefly handed over their entire opinion page to supporters of President Donald Trump. Both Trump and his supporters have been known to frequently work against minorities, opposing movements such as Black Lives Matter and expressing strong anti-immigrant sentiments. While the Times justified their move by claiming they were trying to enable a diversity of views, offering their platform to the discriminatory views of Trump supporters runs counter to their stated mission.
Both of these instances indicate that despite the Times’ stated objective of reckoning with racism, they have truly not made much progress in actually combating their prior injustices. Failing to adequately compensate employees of color for their work while platforming the views of Trump supporters only reveals that Soon-Shiong’s words are empty promises. Soon-Shiong and the Times must properly compensate employees and include works by writers of color to ensure that marginalized communities are able to properly represent themselves in the media. In order to truly reckon with their racism, these are essential steps that the LA Times must take.
Varshini Srikanthan is an Opinion Intern for the 2020 fall quarter. She can be reached at vsrikant@uci.edu.